Notes and Queries, Number 57, November 30, 1850 | Page 7

so isolated, that there can seldom be made out more than a few dislocated fragments of any one subject of inquiry whatever. Special inquiries are prosecuted with great vigour and acumen; but we look in vain for system, classification, or general principles. This, however, is not to be charged to them as a scientific vice, peculiarly:--for, in truth, it must be confessed to be a vice, not only too common, but almost universal amongst English geometers; and even in the geometry of the Greeks themselves, the great object appears to have been "problem-solving" rather than the deduction and arrangement of scientific truths. The modern French geometers have, however, broken this spell; and it is not too much too hope that we shall not be long ere we join them in the development of the systems they have already opened; and, moreover, add to the list some independent topics of our own. The chief dangers to which we are in this case exposed are, classification with incomplete data, and drawing inferences upon trust. It cannot be denied, at all events, that some of our French cotemporaries have fallen into both these errors; but the abuse of a principle is no argument for our not using it, though its existence (or even possible existence) should be a strong incentive to caution.
These remarks have taken a more general form than it is usual to give in your pages. As, however, it is probable that many of your readers may feel an interest in a general statement of a very curious intellectual phenomenon, I am not without a hope that, though so far removed from the usual topics discussed in the work, they will not be altogether unacceptable or useless.
PEN-AND-INK.
[Footnote 1: Although at one period of our life we took great pains to make a collection of the periodicals which, during the last century, were devoted wholly or partially to mathematics, yet we could never even approximate towards completeness. It was not, certainly, from niggardly expenditure. Indeed, it is doubtful whether a complete set exists, or could even be formed now.]
[Footnote 2: See _Philosophical Magazine_, Sept. 1850.]
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MINOR NOTES.
_Sermon's Pills._--In Guizot's _Life of Monk, Duke of Albermarle_, translated and edited by the present Lord Wharncliffe, it is stated (p. 313.) that when the Duke was suffering from the diseases which afterwards proved fatal to him,
"One of his neighbours, at New Hall, formerly an officer in his army, mentioned to him certain pills said to be sovereign against the dropsy, which were sold at Bristol by one Sermon, who had also served under his orders in Scotland as a private soldier. This advice and remedy from ancient comrades, inspired the old general with more confidence than the skill of the physicians. He sent for Sermon's pills, and found himself so much recovered by them for a time, that he returned to London at the close of the summer."
Having "found," in the newspapers of the day, the following paragraphs illustrative of this passage in the great General's history, I think them sufficiently interesting "to make a Note of."
"London, July 13. 1669.--His Grace the Lord General, after a long and dangerous distemper, is (God {439} be praised) perfectly recovered and restored to his former health, to the Great rejoycing of their Majesties and the whole court, by the assistance of one William Sermon, of Bristol, whose pills have had that excellent success as to restore him perfectly to his sleep and appetite, and wholly abate all the symptoms of his disease. Yesterday his Grace, as being perfectly cured, dismissed his physicians from their farther attendance."
"London, July 17. 1669.--The 13th instant, Mr. William Sermon, the practitioner in physick, who so happily performed that excellent cure upon his Grace the Duke of Albermarle, was presented to His Majesty in St. James's Park, where he had the honor to kiss His Majesty's hand, and to receive his thanks for that good service."
September 9. 1669.--"Advertisement: These are to give notice that William Sermon, Dr. of Physick, a person so eminently famous for his cure of his Grace the Duke of Albermarle, is removed from Bristol to London, and may be spoken with every day, especially in the forenoon, at his house in West Harding Street, in Goldsmith's Rents, near Three Legged Alley, between Fetter Lane and Shooe Lane."
Can any of your correspondents give an account of the subsequent career of Dr. Sermon?
[Greek: D]
An Infant Prodigy (Vol. ii., p. 101.).--There are parallel cases in the hagioloists (_Hist. de l'Eglise Gallicane_, par Longueval, tom. iii. p. 430. 1782):
"S. Amand apr��s cette mission ��tant repass�� dans la Gaule, eut bient?t occasion de montrer l'intr��pidit�� de son z��le ... L'amour des femmes, ��cueil fatal des jeunes princes, fit en peu de temps oublier �� Dagobert les le?ons qu'il avoit re?ues de S.